I read through Fromage and The Various Shades of Fangline in order to brush up on the intricacies of Fang and Zedwig's relationship as I'm writing this current part of Lintier and you know what was interesting? It was like a journal of what it is like to live in Utah. Except the Fang and Zedwig insanity part. I originally designed Schloffelonia to be geographically/climate-wise similar to the greener, more alpine parts of Utah, since I have a tremendous love for the mountains. Especially in Various Shades, it is described with so much varying detail that it brought exactly what it feels like to be in the Uinta mountain range back all in a rush, extra white light and all. Man, I miss those mountains.
Fromage was written in Utah, but Shades was written after I'd moved to Texas, and perhaps was a method of pining after something that was no longer there. However, there's actually a bit of Arkansas written into it, with the circling hawk motif. In the Arkansas Ozarks, I laid half submerged in a crystal clear creek and watched hawks circle the bluff right above me for an hour, and that's where the scene with Fang and Zedwig by the creek comes from. That place is pretty magical, too, and I guess I never would have had the opportunity to find it if I hadn't been here at this time.